The Issue With Google's "Most Searched" Celebs

Perhaps nothing is a more honest look into our brains than an analysis of our Google searches. They are basically everything we want to know when we think no one is looking. But someone is watching: Google. It remembers everything, and it might just remember 2018 as the most bonkers year of them all. Our annus horribilis.

Today, the company released its 2018 Year in Search, documenting the most-searched people, topics, events, and places in the world. While years past turned up inspiring people like US Olympian Simone Biles and Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, 2018 had a decidedly different story to tell.

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2018 was the year of YouTube scandals, of the men of #MeToo getting unearthed, of racist TV stars — of cults, for crying out loud. Therefore, the things we Googled were similarly bleak. The most Googled actors of 2018 are Logan Paul, Bill Cosby, Sylvester Stallone, Pete Davidson, Michael B. Jordan, Allison Mack, Noah Centineo, Bradley Cooper, Roseanne Barr, and Chadwick Boseman. Four of these people — Paul, Cosby, Mack, and Barr — were in the news in 2018 for problematic and even downright awful behaviour. Also on the list of most-Googled people is another bummer of a dude, Brett Kavanaugh.

It says something that the most prominent people of the year happen to be the ones associated with its lowest points, and certainly paints a dour portrait the current state of the world. It's easy to get despondent, to wallow in the fact that there clearly wasn't as much to celebrate this year, but at least there's the fact that it's nearly over. These dark moments are in the past, and now 2019 is full of bright and shiny opportunities for celebrities to do some better things worth Googling. Please, no more cults.